Tools + technique

• Vibrato

  A controlled oscillation of pitch produced by rocking the left-hand finger on the string. Two main types: arm vibrato (slower, bigger, used for warm tone) and wrist vibrato (faster, narrower, used for brilliance). Audition panels listen for vibrato shape that fits the musical line.

• Bow distribution

  How much of the bow you use, and where, on a given note or phrase. Bad bow distribution (running out of bow halfway through a long note) is one of the most-flagged cut criteria. Good distribution is invisible — the bow is exactly where it needs to be.

• Audition Prep Mode

  Orchestra Kingdom's All-Access feature that re-balances your daily practice plan against an audition date. Within 21 days of the audition: zero new material, only review. The Oracle weekly plan tightens accordingly.

  All-Access tier

• Spiccato

  Bouncing-bow stroke where the bow leaves the string between notes. Different from staccato (on the string) and ricochet (multiple bounces per stroke). Required for fast articulation in concertos like Mendelssohn and Mozart.

• Marcato

  Marked, accented playing — each note attacked with weight and clarity. Often notated with a > or ^ above the note. Used for declaratory passages and the start of phrases that need to land.

• Double-stops

  Playing two notes simultaneously by drawing the bow across two adjacent strings. Common in Bach unaccompanied works, Beethoven late quartets, and the cadenza-tier difficulty pages of any major concerto. Intonation here is harder because both notes have to be in tune relative to each other AND relative to the key.

• Harmonics

  Light-touch notes played at specific points on the string (1/2, 1/3, 1/4 of string length) that produce a flute-like overtone. Two types: natural harmonics (open string) and artificial harmonics (stopped + light touch). Tchaikovsky concerto cadenza is full of artificial harmonics; Sibelius opens with them.

• Pizzicato

  Plucking the string instead of bowing. Notated 'pizz.' (return to bow notated 'arco'). Different sound, different intonation tendencies (pizz tends to land slightly sharp on most string instruments). Used famously in Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony pizz movement.

• Tremolo

  Rapid back-and-forth bow strokes producing a shimmering or agitated sound. Different from a trill (alternating two pitches). Common in dramatic orchestral writing — Wagner, Verdi, late Romantic.

Browse other sections: Auditions · Rubric + scoring · Repertoire · Theory + style